Fennelly column: Red Sox Making It Loud And Clear

DENVER - Win, win, win.

That's what the Red Sox, of all people, do now in October.

The team that spent 86 years seeing black cats, Bucky Dents and Billy Bucks is up 3-0 again after a 10-5 win Saturday night at Coors Field. It's 27 outs from sweeping the Series for the second time in four seasons.

The Rockies, God bless 'em, tried to be those Rockies for a fleeting Rocktober moment in Game 3, but crumbled once more. It hasn't been pretty. It never is when a miracle is ground to dust.

Each night, when the dust clears, it's clear that the best team in baseball won and that the National League would need a picture ID to get into the American League.

Sox-Rox has been a sad exercise. Each day, people talk about how the Rockies won 21 out of 22 to get here. Each night, these darlings get scraped off the diamond before they lay down the tarp.

Simple lesson:

The Red Sox have Josh Beckett.

The Rockies have Josh Fogg.

Oh, the humanity.

The Sox grin reaper rolls on. They happily won the first game by 12 runs and the second game by one run and the third game 10-5.

Granted, Saturday was slightly problematic, a 6-0 Sox lead nearly disappearing, but they poured it on late. That was that, and in only 4 hours, 19 minutes, the longest nine-inning game in Series history.

But if any of you are worried that this thing is going to run really, really long (Nightmare scenario: That annoying comedian in the Fox commercials updating with "There's only one November"), have no fear.

It's the Red Sox.

The Bambino is dead.

"We're pretty good at clinching games later," reliever Mike Timlin said.

These guys are closers.

The last time the Red Sox - yes, the Red Sox - lost a World Series game was 21 years ago, the night after the ball split Buckner's legs against the Mets in Shea Stadium.

Nothing has gotten through since.

The Sox put first baseman Kevin Youklis on the bench in DH-less Denver and it didn't matter. The new first baseman, David Ortiz, shows promise.

The Sox put a rabbit named Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the order and dropped second baseman Dustin Pedroia to second, making them the first rookies to bat 1-2 in a lineup.

All Ellsbury did was deliver four hits, including three doubles, two in one inning, and two RBI. Oh, and Pedroia had three hits and two RBI.

The Sox sent Daisuke Matsuzaka up to bat and he got the first hit of his major-league career to drive in two runs. Oh, he pitched and won, too.

The Sox stayed with J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo all season - and they're both hitting .400 in the Series. Drew has hit safely in his last nine postseason games. Lugo had a hits, two walks and made two great fielding plays, including a leaping grab to snare a line drive to end a two-run Rockies sixth that threatened to be much more.

Even after Colorado truly broke through for the first time this Series - Matt Holliday's three-run seventh-inning bomb off the heretofore untouchable Hideki Okajima cut the Boston lead to 6-5 - you never quite felt the Red Sox wouldn't break right back, and break back they did in the eighth, with Ellsbury and Pedroia delivering again.

We still have no idea why Colorado skipper Clint Hurdle, manging his first Series, pulled reliever Matt Herges after he struck out the side in the sixth. Or how, for that matter, anyone ever hits Jonathan Papelbon.

Boston's closer closed again. No one has scored off him in 9 postseason innings, so Saturday was nothing new. It never gets old, watching this kid.

The young and somewhat flighty Papelbon (his fastball flew at 99 mph to end Game 2 ) has a little of Eppy Calvin "Nuke" Lalouche in him. He celebrated wins in the division series and ALCS by doing a sort of "River Dance" Irish jig for the teammates and Sox fans. He hasn't blown a save in two months.

"I'm sure if he'd blown 40 in a row people wouldn't be clapping at his dancing," Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek said with a grin.

Before the Series, Papelbon was asked about his dancing.

"I listen to the voices inside my head."

The Red Sox have been the voice inside the Rockies' heads all Series. No team had ever down what Colorado did to get here, but plenty have done what they're doing now. But leave these adorables alone.

Blame it on the Red Sox.

Blame it on that $143 million payroll, but just as much on a wealth of men who know how to win and when to win, no matter what their age or how much the roster turns over. There are only eight Boston players left from the 2004 Curse Busters.

So what?

The voices are building inside Boston heads.

The Yankees are dead, long dead.

The Angels and Indians are, too.

That 3-1 hole in the ALCS?

Wheelhouse.

And now the red-hot Rockies are cold to the touch.

For good measure, tonight the Red Sox will add drama by starting Jon Lester on the mound. Ten months ago, Lester was finishing up chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Nobody knew if the 23-year-old would ever pitch again.

Now he'll pitch for world championship.

These Red Sox can beat anyone and anything.

Gentlemen, start your dancing shoes.